Can Murthy's magic make Infosys a star once again?

If despite this the market has found reason to cheer, then it can mean only one thing: it is registering a strong vote of confidence in favour of N R Narayana Murthy’s return and taking a wager that he will be able to steer the firm back on the path of better performance.

This almost religious faith in an individual’s abilities in a professionally run company that works on a collegial basis at the top may not be as irrational as it may look at first. What went haywire in Infosys was not in what it set out to do recently; it was the leadership’s inability to get all hands on deck.

Can Murthy's magic make Infosys a star once again?

If Mr Murthy does no more than ensure that the laid-down strategy is followed with alacrity and internal channels of communication are clear and unimpeded once again, then he will have delivered. Managing Director and CEO S D Shibulal has spelt out how the different parts of the Infosys 3.0 strategy have performed.

Consulting and systems integration, which have to account for a third of revenue, are on course.

This segment takes the company out of the low-margin commodity end of the business.

Can Murthy's magic make Infosys a star once again?

The latter is taken care of by the traditional applications and maintenance part of the business, whose share in revenue is a little under two-thirds.

Faltering on this front lately has led to a fall in the rate of top-line growth within large fluctuations.

A renewed emphasis on this bread-and-butter part of the business, so as to appease the markets, will clearly not take the company forward as a high-margin technology-based business that does not have to rely on onshore delivery.

But relying on cheap imported labour at customer locations may have to be given up if the new US immigration Bill in its present form comes through.

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Image: NR Narayana Murthy, Founder and Chairman, Infosys, during an interview with Reuters at the company's office in Bengaluru.Photographs: Vivek Prakash/Reuters